AT&T to Top 5 Percenters: We Warned You

AT&T today responded to reports of throttling from users who have unlimited data plans. The company announced in July of last year that it would throttle the data speeds of its top 5% of users -- even those who have unlimited data plans. "Smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage puts them in the top 5% of our heaviest data users," said AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom in an email to Phone Scoop. "We will continue to send reminders and communicate with these customers ahead of time as their usage approaches the top 5%. For 95% of our smartphone customers this continues to present no impact." According to AT&T, the actual amount of data used by the top 5% changes each month. Customers who are throttled during a portion of their billing period due t heavy use will be restored to full-speed service at the start of the next billing cycle.